Jake Mahler expresses his theatrical side.
Math/theater: Mr. Mahler
This year, a former BSM student, Mr. Jake Mahler stepped in as the new Artistic Director for the Theater department, a math teacher for four different classes, and he helps with Audio Visual, where he sets up microphones and showscreens.
Although math and theater might not seem to have much in common, Mahler uses his skills from theater to help in the classroom. “[I need the] structure of the mathematics and the creativity of theater,” Mahler said.
Mahler spent time touring with the American Shakespeare Theater where he was on tour on the East Coast. He was in plays such as “MacBeth” and many other Shakespeare classics. While on tour he would do workshops with students at colleges but also some high schools.
After the tour, he moved to Chicago and did ACT prep. Then Mahler moved to California and did long term subbing, where he taught AP Calc BC for a whole semester. Then, he moved back to Minnesota, his home, where he found a job here at BSM. He saw that there was a job opportunity all the way in Minnesota and he took it. BSM offered a chance to get closer to his family and have a job in a place where it feels less foreign.
Mahler is loving his job so far at BSM. He has noticed that the culture at BSM is the best he has seen at any school he has been to. He thinks that the students are very interactive which he greatly appreciates. “I have kids that seem eager and want to engage even if it’s in a subject where they don’t feel great about. Instead of tuning out…they will put forth effort which I think is great,” Mahler said.
Mahler has high hopes for the future at BSM. He wants to somehow use the atrium as the set of small act plays where kids can get involved where they don’t have to commit as much time as a full play. “If there are kids that want to be involved in theater but haven’t been able to commit to the full long projects that they should reach out…because we are looking to do smaller projects with less of a time commitment,” Mahler said.
Em Paquette wears no makeup
The hardest thing for me during this assignment was to stay positive and be myself. For the past six years, my security blanket has been my 30-minute morning routine of mascara, concealer, and foundation, and without it, I found myself looking at the floor, avoiding eye contact, and feeling completely naked. This week was a moment I had been fearing for almost half of my life, a week in which I would have no protection from the judgmental hallways of high school.
From an early age, I learned that as a woman in modern society, the definition of beauty wasn’t your physical character, but rather what you could do to cover it up. I had adapted to that, becoming almost dependent on my products. While makeup boosted my self-esteem, it trapped me to never be able to leave my house without it. As I tried to end my dependency, the hardest day was most definitely the first. Even though I was taking out a half-an-hour of makeup from my routine, I still left the house late. Most of my morning was well spent standing in front of the mirror, not able to leave the small room that consumed all of my fears and doubts.
On that first day, my thought process was all over the place, and it became noticeable to my friends. “She was on edge and nervous all day, you could see her eyes flickering from one person to the next, wondering if they had noticed,” senior Jack Gables said. As the day had gone by though, I had seemed to forget about it. Until that is, when I went to the bathroom and was quickly reminded how different I looked.
While my week was full of negatives, whenever I found a positive it surely brightened my day. After a few days, my mind began to forget the bareness of my face. The days became easier, and I was able to sleep in later and have no issue leaving on time anymore. Before, it had been a burden to perfect my makeup, but now it was just the ease of slipping out of my bed and walking out the door within 20 minutes.
Yet, I still dealt with the worries and fear of what people thought of me, which all flashed back to one memory from sixth grade, which was the last time I had ever gone to school bare, when a kid laughed at how tired I looked. Yet this week, no matter how tired I looked, or how insecure I got, my face stayed bare. This week wasn’t just something for the newspaper, I did this for myself, and I dare any person out there who is insecure like I am to do the same. I dare you to go bare for a week, show the world who you really are, human.